Parts of Speech
Editing I
Grammar
• Grammar refers to the relation of words.
• The rules of grammar reflect patterns of
speech and writing of the educated elite.
• What makes grammar fun is knowing the
rules and when to break them.
• Breaking the rules through ignorance and
carelessness produces chaos and a loss of
respect for what has been written.
The Sentence
• A complete sentence needs only a subject
and a predicate.
• The subject of the sentence is what is
spoken about. The predicate is what is said
about the subject.
• “The women in feathered hats and flowered
dresses were invited to tea with Queen
Elizabeth II.”
The Sentence
• What is the subject in the previous
sentence?
• What is the predicate?
• What is the shortest complete sentence
possible?
The Sentence
• It is possible to classify sentences into one
of four categories:
• Declarative -- statement ending with a
period.
• Interrogative -- requests information.
• Imperative -- expresses a command and
ends with a period.
• Exclamations -- express surprise.
The Sentence
• Sentences are made up of clauses, phrases
and words.
• A clause contains a subject and a predicate.
• Clauses are either dependent or
independent.
• An independent clause can stand alone as a
sentence.
• A dependent clause cannot.
The Sentence
• A dependent clause refers to a word in an
independent clause.
• Example: … who lived in a shoe … The
verb is lived and the subject is the pronoun,
who.
• A phrase is a cluster of words doing a single
job. They lack a subject, a predicate or both.
• … to New York is a phrase.
The Sentence
• Dependent clauses, phrases and words can
be classified as essential or non-essential.
• An essential clause is required to clarify the
meaning of the parent noun or pronoun.
• It is introduced with a relative pronoun
(that, who, or whom) and is not set off with
commas.
Essential Examples
• Essential clause: “Don’t use commas that
aren’t necessary.” If the clause in italics
were deleted, the sentence would offer bad
advice.
• Essential phrase: They saw the awardwinning movie “The Pianist.” The phrase is
needed because there is more than one
award-winning movie.
Essential Examples
• Essential word: “Her grandmother Ellen is a
teacher.” If both grandmothers are living,
the writer must distinguish between the one
who is a teacher and the one who is not.
• If one grandmother has died, then commas
on both sides of Ellen would be needed.
Nonessential Examples
• Nonessential clauses, phrases and words are
set off with commas and provide additional
information. Nonessential clauses are
introduced by relative pronouns (which,
who or whom).
• Nonessential clause: “Don’t use vulgar
words, which aren’t necessary.”
Nonessential Examples
• Nonessential phrase: “They saw the 1998
winner of the Academy Award for best
movie, ‘Titanic.’” Only one movie won the
award for best picture that year.
• Nonessential word: “His wife, Ellen, is a
teacher.” If he has more than one wife at a
time, then we have another story.
• For more see the essential, nonessential
entry in the AP Stylebook.
The Eight Parts of Speech
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Noun
Pronoun
Verb
Adjective
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Adverb
Preposition
Conjunction
Interjection
The Noun
• The noun identifies people, places or things.
• The simple subject of a sentence must be a
noun or a pronoun.
• Nouns can be proper (names), which are
capitalized, and common, which are not.
• Proper: Oklahoma, U.S. Army, Ohio State
University, General Motors
The Noun
• Beware of long noun phrases.
• Short combinations, like English course or
love affair, are acceptable.
• Long combinations can be confusing.
• Wanted -- 100-year-old bridge repairers
• U.S. Air Force aircraft fuel systems
equipment mechanics course
The Noun
• Another challenge is in the way nouns form
their possessive or plural forms. The AP
Stylebook attempts to deal with most of
these. See possessives, plurals and titles
for help and the entries for specific nouns.
• Also watch for collective nouns.
• Plus, remember that a verb used as a noun is
called a gerund. Ex.: Jogging is fun.
The Pronoun
• It is a kind of noun that stands for another
noun. The noun for which the pronoun
stands is called its antecedent.
• A pronoun refers to the first preceding noun
with which it agrees in number, person and
gender.
The Pronoun
• Number means singular or plural.
• Person means first (I, we), second (you), or
third (he, she, it, they).
• Gender means male or female.
• Every pronoun should be checked for
agreement with the noun to which it refers.
The Pronoun
• Example: “The English teacher spoke with
deliberation, as if she were testing the taste
of the words.”
• She matches the antecedent in number
(singular), person (both are third person)
and gender (both are feminine because this
sentence was referring to a specific person,
who happened to be a woman).
The Pronoun
• Who is sick in sentence No. 1 on the
examples before you?
• What about in No. 2?
Personal Pronouns
• Personal pronouns have three cases,
subjective, objective and possessive.
• The subjective case is used when the
pronoun is the subject of the clause.
• Subjective pronouns include I, she and they.
Personal Pronouns
• Objective case is used when the pronoun is
the object of a verb or preposition.
• Only six words in the English language
show the objective case. They are: me, him,
her, them, us and whom.
Personal Pronouns
• The possessive case includes my and our.
• Use a possessive pronoun before a gerund.
• Wrong: Do you object to me borrowing
your rake?
• Right: Do you object to my borrowing your
rake?
Personal Pronouns
• Case can affect the meaning of a story.
Consider the difference in meaning below.
• No one was angrier at Daryl than me.
• No one was angrier at Daryl than I.
• Both sentences are correct, but they have
different meanings.
Personal Pronouns
• The first sentence means that people were
angry with both of us, but they were angrier
with me. The pronoun me is the object of
the preposition at (understood).
• The second sentence means that no one was
angrier with Daryl than I was. The pronoun
I is the subject of the verb was.
Relative Pronouns
• These introduce dependent clauses. They
include which, that and who, whom.
• The best way to learn about their
application is to read the AP Stylebook
entries.
Demonstrative Pronouns
• They point out someone or something.
Examples include this, that and these, those.
• The biggest trick with demonstrative
pronouns is figuring out what antecedent
they are pointing to, because it is often
unclear.
• Some writing coaches would like to ban
demonstrative pronouns.
Demonstrative Pronouns
• Here’s why. Consider the following quote
from an NFL quarterback after his team lost
the first five games of the season. “Until
you lose maybe eight games, you’re not out
of the playoffs. And we haven’t put that out
of the realm of possibility.”
• To what does that refer?
Verb
• Verbs express action or a state of being. The
predicate always contains a verb.
• Verbs are the essence of good writing.
Verb
• Verbs have tense and mood. The six basic
tenses in English are:
• Simple present – I work.
• Simple past – I worked.
• Simple future – I will work.
• Present perfect – I have worked.
• Past perfect – I had worked.
• Future perfect – I will have worked.
Verb
• Except for simple present and simple past,
verb tenses employ helper verbs (have, had,
will, etc.) to make compound verbs.
• Good writers avoid splitting compound
verbs.
• “She was ordered to immediately leave.”
This is a split infinitive.
• “She was ordered to leave immediately.”
Better.
Staying Tense
• Journalism and expository writing is
normally conducted in the third person.
• Avoid using words such as I, we, us and
you.
• Editors must watch for writers who cannot
stick to one person or one tense.
• Jumping from first to third person, for
example, is called shifting the reader’s point
of view.
Regular vs. Irregular
• Regular verbs, like to work, form their past
tense and past participle by adding –ed or
–d to the base form.
• There are, however, about 250 irregular
verbs in the English language.
• An odd one, which is mentioned in the
stylebook, is forecast. Present tense –
forecast. Past tense – forecast. Past
participle – forecast.
Tricky Stuff
• Here are some verbs to watch out for in copy.
• To get is famously mangled.
• Writers often try to make the present perfect tense
using the past tense of the verb to get, which is
got.
• Bad Example: She has got a cold.
• The writer should have used the past participle,
which is gotten.
Tricky Stuff
• The problem gets worse.
• “You have got to be careful.”
• Try to fix it. Gotten only makes it worse.
Tricky Stuff
• Why? Because got only serves to recreate a
redundancy, like never ever.
• Fix it by rewriting. “You have got to be
careful” becomes “You have to be careful.”
• Or, better yet, it becomes “You must be
careful.”
Verb Abuse
• Advertising copy writers and marketers
often abuse verbs.
• “Honey, I Shrunk the Kids.” (Movie title)
• “The martini is still drank the same way as
it was 60 years ago.” (Gin advertisement)
• Others?
Verb Moods
• Verbs have three moods.
• Indicative for statements and questions of
fact (She went to work).
• Imperative to issue commands (Go to
work).
• Subjunctive for conditions contrary to facts
(If I were King, I wouldn’t have to work).
More Verbs
• Verbs are either transitive or intransitive.
• Transitive verbs take an object.
• In the subject-verb-object style that
comprises most journalism the verb is a
transitive verb.
More Verbs
• Most verbs can be transitive or intransitive.
• Transitive: “She ran the race.”
• Intransitive: “She ran.”
Toughest Verbs in English
• To lay, to raise and to set are always
transitive.
• To lie, to rise and to sit are always
intransitive.
• These six verbs are among the toughest in
the English language.
Toughest Verbs in English
• You can’t sit something. You must set it.
• You can lie down, but you must lay
something down.
• This gets complicated because the parts of
lay and lie are similar.
• The present tense of to lay is the past tense
of to lie, which is lay.
Voice
• Only transitive verbs can have voice, either
active or passive.
• In the active voice, the subject performs the
action. “The dog bit the man.”
• In the passive voice, the subject receives the
action. “The mans was bitten by the dog.”
Voice
• The mealy-mouthed love the passive voice.
• “The action was taken.” (Who took the
action?)
• “Mistakes were made.” (Who goofed?)
• Bureaucrats and lousy reporters love the
passive voice. It’s the perfect mask for not
knowing who did what.
Voice
• Good journalists prefer the more vigorous
active voice.
• Weak: “It was estimated that 500 cars will
be affected by the recall.”
• Strong: “Ford estimated that the recall will
affect 500 Expeditions.”
Copulation
• (Yes, this headline was intended just to see
if you were still awake.)
• Copulative verbs, better known as linking
verbs, equate the subject with an adjective,
noun or pronoun in the predicate.
• They describe a condition that continues to
exist (e.g., is) or a condition of change (e.g.,
becomes).
Linking Verbs
• The most common is to be. Others include
to become, to seem, to look, to taste, to
smell, to appear and to feel.
• “War is hell.”
• “I feel good.”
• “It looks bad.”
Linking Verbs
• Linking verbs either describe the subject or
identify the subject.
• If it describes the subject is must be
followed by an adjective. (Adjectives
describe nouns or pronouns.)
• “She feels bad.” The object describes what
she feels.
Linking Verbs
• If you want to describe the verb, use and
adverb.
• “She feels badly.” This is right if you mean
she has lost her sense of touch.
• See the bad, badly and the good, well
entries in the Stylebook for more.
Linking Verbs
• If the linking verb identifies the subject, it
must be followed by a noun or pronoun in
the same case as the subject.
• The distinction is important because
pronouns that follow transitive verbs must
be in the objective case, whereas pronouns
that follow linking verbs must be in the
subjective case.
Linking Verbs
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•
•
•
“Who is there?”
What is the correct answer?
“It is she.”
“It is her.”
Linking Verbs
• Watch out for redundancy.
• “That is the reason why he went to jail.”
• Delete either the reason or why.
Linking Verbs
• As you will have noted, some verbs can be
either transitive or linking.
• This means editors have to look at intent.
• “He grew impatient.” (He got restless.)
• “He grew impatiently.” (This describes
what he became. Perhaps he grew three feet
and gained 50 pounds overnight.)
Linking Verbs
• Confused?
• Welcome to the club.
• The best solution is to weigh the sentence
and attempt to determine the writer’s or the
speaker’s intent.
Application
• Consider whether a story could be improved
by replacing weak, vague, overused and
passive verbs with strong, specific, active
verbs.
• The verb to hold is overused and weak.
• “The committee meeting will be held on
Sunday.”
• Better: “The committee will meet Sunday.”
Application
• “There are nine senators who voted for the
bill.”
• Better: “Nine senators voted for the bill.”
• “John Terry will be the editor of the sports
section.”
• Better: “John Terry will edit the sports
section.”
Application
• Resist the temptation to turn nouns into
verbs.
• Turning debut into a verb is awkward.
• How about sky?
Adjective
• Adjectives describe or modify nouns,
pronouns and other adjectives.
• Editors are concerned with four kinds of
adjectives: descriptive, vague, editorial and
redundant.
• Keep descriptive adjectives that provide
factual information. Jettison the others.
Adjective
• Editorial adjectives, such as great, dramatic,
fantastic, spectacular, express unattributed
opinion.
• Vague adjectives (big, small, recent,
various) should be replaced with specifics.
• Redundant adjectives include prior
planning, personal friend, rich heiress and
longest single journey.
Adjective
• Watch out for the ambiguity that can result
if two adjectives precede a noun.
• Example: small business man. Is this a
measurement of the business or the man?
• If it is meant to describe the business insert
a hyphen and create a compound modifier
(small-business man.)
• How about two point victories?
Adjective
• “I saw a giant man eating squid.”
• Is this some terror from the deep or is Yao
Ming dining on calamari?
• “The book was thought provoking.”
• If it provokes thought, insert a hyphen. If
most readers thought the book provoked
them, leave it alone.
Adjective
• A common student error is to compound the
adjective with the noun that it modifies.
• Wrong: “The team won a two-pointvictory.”
The Limiting Adjective
• Compare:
• “A is an article. Other articles are an and
the.”
• “A is an article. The other articles are an
and the.”
• The first example implies that there are
more than three articles. The second implies
that the set is complete.
The Limiting Adjective
• A father and mother constitute a couple.
• A father and a mother might not.
• Do not omit articles that contribute to
clarity.
• A friend and helper could mean one or two
people. A friend and a helper makes it clear
that it is two people.
About Articles
• The AP Stylebook requires a before
consonant sounds and an before vowel
sounds. The key is sounds.
• Applying the rule can be tricky. For
instance, how do you pronounce “history?”
Comparisons
• Comparisons take three forms: single,
comparative and superlative.
• Singular: “I am happy.”
• Comparative: “I am happier.” (Talking
about yourself and one other person.)
• Superlative: “I am happiest.” (If you are
talking about more than two people.)
Comparisons
• Some adjectives are absolute and may not
be compared.
• Examples include absolute, dead, entire,
equal, fatal, final, infinite, mortal,
omnipotent, parallel, pregnant, total,
unanimous, ultimate and unique.
• There is no such thing as a little dead or
most unique.
Adverb
• An adverb describes verbs, other adverbs
and adjectives but never nouns or pronouns.
• Adverbs tell where, when or how much.
• Adverbs, even more than adjectives, are
overused.
• A story may be improved by deleting vague
intensifiers such as very, recently, soon,
actually and basically.
Preposition
• Prepositions show the relationship of the
noun to which it applies and other words in
the sentence: to Minnesota, with pleasure,
for money.
• The noun or pronoun following a
preposition is called its object. Together, the
preposition and its object form a
prepositional phrase.
Preposition
• Choosing the correct preposition is one of
the nightmares of the English language.
• Should you invite someone to dinner or for
dinner?
• Does your dog go into the house or in the
house?
• It depends on your intent.
Preposition
• Do not set off prepositional phrases with
commas.
• Wrong: “Pete Best, of Phoenix, is attending
law school.”
• Right: “Pete Best of Phoenix is attending
law school.”
• Right: “Pete Best, Phoenix, is attending law
school.” (Phoenix is a nonessential word.)
Conjunction
• Conjunctions connect similar structures.
• Dissimilar elements belong in separate
sentences.
• There are three kinds of conjunctions:
coordinating, subordinating and correlative.
Coordinating Conjunctions
• Coordinating conjunctions connect
equivalents. Examples include for, and, nor,
or, as, but, so and yet.
• If two independent clauses are joined by a
coordinating conjunction, precede the
conjunction with a comma.
• Right: “It works, and It fills a need.”
• Wrong: “It’s expensive, however, it was
worth the price.” (Not a coordinating
conjunction)
Coordinating Conjunctions
• Like, a preposition, is often used in place of
as, a coordinating conjunction.
• Wrong: “You can view information like you
would on your desktop PC.”
• Wrong: “Because of his foot injury, he can’t
jump and shoot like he need to.”
• See also the like, as entry in the AP
Stylebook.
Correlative Conjunctions
• They also join equivalent elements.
• Examples include either … or, neither …
nor, both … and, just as … so, not only …
but also and whether … or.
• The trick here is to maintain parallelism
among elements.
• Both ends must balance.
Correlative Conjunctions
• Wrong: “The FBI is either inefficient or the
organization is corrupt.”
• Right: “The FBI is either inefficient or
corrupt.”
• The element that follows or must match the
element that follows either.
• In the incorrect example, either is followed
by an adjective; or is followed by an
independent clause.
Correlative Conjunctions
• Wrong: “The balance sheet isn’t as healthy
as the year before.”
• Right: “The balance sheet isn’t as healthy as
it was the year before.”
• Watch out for the possible redundancy in
both … and.
• Not recommended: “Both Sowell and
Ketterer are professors.”
• Better: “Sowell and Ketterer are
professors.”
Subordinating Conjunctions
• They introduce adverbial clauses.
• Examples include because, before, since,
that, though, unless and until.
• The clauses they introduce are usually
dependent.
• Whether the conjunctions should be
proceeded by a comma depends on whether
the clause is essential or nonessential.
Subordinating Conjunctions
• Consider: “Conners hasn’t played since he
broke his wrist.”
• Why isn’t there a comma before since?
• It is essential. The clause tells how long it
has been since Conners played. Without the
clause the sentence wouldn’t make sense.
Conjunctions
• We all know that one of the rules is to never
start a sentence with a conjunction.
• But it’s fun to break the rule.
Interjections
• A catchall category for words like well, uh,
ouch.
• Spelling them is the trick.
• What is the correct spelling of a sneeze? A
feeling of cold? Disgust? Aaaaugh?
Interjections
• This is the last slide.
• Yeeeee-haw!